$1,000 & 10 hours community service

UNION COUNTY — The Union County High School seniors charged with allegedly breaking into and vandalizing the school will be able to take part in the upcoming commencement ceremony but only if they each pay $1,000 in restitution and do 10 hours community service by Thursday.

The Union County Board of School Trustees met Monday evening and on the agenda was whether or not the students charged with breaking into the school shortly after midnight Thursday morning should be allowed take part in the UCHS graduation exercises which will be held this Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the UCHS gym.

During the meeting, Trustee Mike Manning made the motion “that the students be allowed to walk during graduation under following conditions: They pay one thousand dollars toward final restitution and ten hours of community service documented. This is to be paid and completed by Thursday, May 24 at 5 p.m.”

Massey’s motion was seconded by Trustee Jane Wilkes and then approved by the board by a vote of 7-2 with trustees Mark Ivey and Manning Jeter opposed.

The board’s action stems from an incident that occurred at UCHS at 12:33 a.m. Thursday when, according to an incident report filed by the Union Public Safety Department a group of students broke into the bottom floor of the building and began vandalizing it. The report states that video footage recorded by the school’s video cameras showed several students enter the school through its library and begin pouring paint on the floors. It further states that paint was also thrown onto the walls and onto the lockers on the bottom floor of the school. In addition, the report states that food was thrown on the floor near the library and that there was also damage on the top floor of the school near the guidance department.

According to the report, school staff were able to identify some of the students who were taken into custody on Thursday. More students were arrested on Friday, Saturday, and Monday. The students charged in the incident are:

The arrest warrants for the burglary second-degree issued for all 16 of the students states that at 12:33 a.m. Thursday they each, along with several other students, entered the school “without permission and with the intent to commit a crime. That crime being malicious damage.”

The arrest warrants for the malicious damage to property issued for the students states that, again at 12:33 a.m. Thursday, they each, along with several other students, did “maliciously damage” the school by “throwing food in the floors, and putting paint on the floors and walls.”

The incident report states the charges will go to General Sessions Court at a later date.